Rethinking Religion and Radicalization

Michele Grossman is Professor of Cultural Studies and Research Chair in Diversity and Community Resilience at Deakin University, Australia. She is also Director of the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies, Convenor of the AVERT Research Network, and a Robert Schuman Distinguished Scholar Fellow at European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Dr H.A. Hellyer, FRSA, is a fellow at Cambridge University, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, and a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC. In 2020 he was elected as a fellow of the UK’s Royal Society of Arts.

Section 1: Religion and violent radicalisation: Concepts and contestations
1. Introduction: Uneasy alliances: Reconceptualising the relationship between religion, radicalisation and violence. H.A. Hellyer (RUSI and Cambridge University, UK) and Michele Grossman (Deakin University, Australia)
2. Debating the role of religion in radicalisation to violence. Lorne Dawson (University of Waterloo, Canada)
3. The role of religion in developing counter-extremism policymaking: The insistence on ideology as the tipping point into violence. Tahir Abbas (Leiden University, The Netherlands)
Section 2: Violent radicalisation and the governance of religious diversity
4. The Governance of religious diversity and the challenge of (violent) radicalisation in western Europe. Thomas Sealy (University of Bristol, UK) and Tina Magazzini (European University Institute, Italy)
5. How security threats shape the governance of religion in south-eastern Europe. Rositsa Dzhekova and Lily Yakova (Centre for the Study of Democracy, Bulgaria)
6. The impact of violent radicalisation on governing religious diversity: Islamist violent extremism and comparative state responses in Southeast Asia. Imran bin Mohd Rasid (Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, Malaysia) and Greg Barton (Deakin University, Australia)
7. The ‘fourth wave’: State responses to youth radicalisation in Russia. Marat Iliyasov (Wisconsin-Madison, St Andrews, and Vytautas Magnus Universities)
Section 3: Beyond Islam: Religious narratives across violent extremist movements
8. Why do Christians in the Middle East take up arms? Georges Fahmi (European University Institute, Italy)
9. Violence as identity formation in the post-secular Jewish extremism of Meir Kahane. Shaul Magid (Dartmouth College, USA)
10. Hinduism’s shifting trajectory: From reconciliation to radicalisation. Pralay Kanungo (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India)
11. The majority with a minority complex: Examining anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka and India. Amar Amarasingam (Queens University, Canada)
Section 4: Political mobilisations of religion on the extremist right
12. Legitimating far-right radicalisation through religious narrative and mythology. Arie Perliger and Alejandro Beutel (University of Massachusetts – Lowell, USA)
13. Alternative to what? Looking into Germany’s extreme right-wing radicalisation. Tina Magazzini (European University Institute, Italy) and Frederic Heine (Johannes Kepler University, Austria)
14. “Orthodoxy or death”: Orthodox Christianity and the far-right, Lydia Khalil (Deakin University, Australia)
15. Conspirituality: The intersection of conspiracy thinking and new religious movements. Vivian Gerrand (Deakin University, Australia)
Section 5: Conclusion
16. Conclusion: Reorienting analysis of religion, radicalisation and violence. Michele Grossman (Deakin University, Australia) and H.A. Hellyer (RUSI and Cambridge University, UK)